ios 5 batteryhttp://www.maclife.com/taxonomy/term/10072/all
enThursday Recap: Nokia Down, AT&T Up, AJA Ships Pro Video Thunderbolt Interfacehttp://www.maclife.com/article/news/thursday_recap_nokia_down_att_aja_ships_pro_video_thunderbolt_interface
<!--paging_filter--><p><img src="/files/u220903/aja_io_xt_200px.jpg" alt="AJA Io XT with Thunderbolt" width="200" height="150" class="graphic-right" />You’ve almost gotta feel bad for the tech companies who have to announce quarterly financial results in the wake of Apple’s gangbuster $46.33 billion fiscal first quarter. Case in point: Nokia, the onetime giant of the cell phone business, whose fortunes have gone the other way in the last quarter, with a $1.3 billion loss. Hang in there, Nokia… it’s almost Friday, and the weekend is sure to be kinder on you than the last three months. Meanwhile, let’s have a peek at what else is making news on this Thursday, January 26, 2012.</p><h3>Nokia Q4 2011: Profits Down, More Than a Million Lumia Handsets</h3><p>Just a couple of years ago, it would have been hard to imagine that cell phone giant Nokia would be playing the role of underdog. Flash forward to today, and the company is draining profit like a sieve and doesn’t have much to show for its new Windows Phone-packing Lumia line thus far. <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/26/nokia-releases-q4-2011-earnings-report-operating-profits-drop/" target="_blank">According to Engadget</a>, Nokia racked up a mere $13.1 billion in net sales for last quarter, which is an improvement from the third quarter, but down 21 percent from the same period in 2010. All in all, the Finnish company had an operating loss of $1.3 billion for the fourth quarter -- very unfortunate, considering Apple’s gangbuster revenue announced this week. On a better news front, Nokia has now sold “well over” a million Lumia devices, those being the budget-conscious Lumia 710 and its more attractive big sister the Lumia 800, which are the first fruits of Nokia’s partnership with Microsoft to produce Windows Phone devices. Nokia also plans to break even in the first quarter of this year, which has been rumored to see the launch of its new Lumia 900 here in the U.S.</p><h3>Rumor: Apple Employees To Enjoy Steep Discounts on Products</h3><p>Apple CEO Tim Cook held an “all hands on deck” Town Hall meeting for employees on the company’s Cupertino campus Wednesday, a day after reporting their biggest quarter ever. While no one knows for sure what was discussed there, <a href="http://9to5mac.com/2012/01/25/tim-cook-at-todays-town-hall-starting-in-june-apple-employees-get-500-off-macs-250-off-ipads/" target="_blank">9to5Mac is reporting</a> that Apple employees may soon benefit from the company’s mountain of wealth, thanks to some new corporate discounts that will kick in this June. According to an unnamed source, Apple employees “will soon be given $500 discounts on purchases of new Macs and $250 discounts on purchases of a new iPad.” The generous discount comes with a few caveats, of course: Employees have to work for Apple for at least 90 days, and the low-priced Mac mini is excluded from the deal. Hey, you can’t expect them to just give that stuff away, can you…?</p><h3>AT&amp;T Q4: 7.6 Million iPhones Activated, Best Smartphone Quarter Ever</h3><p>Apple isn’t the only company enjoying record income during the last three months of last year. <a href="http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=22304&amp;cdvn=news&amp;newsarticleid=33762" target="_blank">According to AT&amp;T</a>, the telco wrapped up 2011 with their best quarter ever for mobile broadband sales, with 9.4 million smartphones sold -- and as you can imagine, most of them were iPhones. The carrier confirmed in a press release that it activated 7.6 million iPhones last quarter, a number that absolutely smokes the 4.3 million activated by competitor Verizon Wireless for the same period. AT&amp;T also isn’t afraid to boast that it bested Verizon in iPhone activations for the entire year, with 17.5 million compared to Big Red’s mere 10.8 million. Remember all the pundits who predicted gloom and doom for Ma Bell when they finally lost iPhone exclusivity? Yeah, those were good times...</p><h3>PSA: $4.99 Cydia Battery Fix for iOS 5 Does Nothing</h3><p>Still having battery drain issues with your iPhone 4S or other iOS 5 device? Apple’s iOS 5.0.1 update fixed the problem for some users, and hopefully the forthcoming iOS 5.1 will take care of the rest. In the meantime, a new jailbreak-only tweak in Cydia called iOS 5 Battery Fix promises to squash the problem for good -- except it doesn’t actually do anything. <a href="http://www.cultofmac.com/142616/4-99-ios-5-battery-fix-available-from-cydia-is-a-complete-scam/" target="_blank">According to Cult of Mac</a>, the $4.99 app is “just a complete scam to steal your cash,” as iOS hackers Dustin Howett and Sam Binger discovered after examining the app’s code. “DHowett found that all it does is replace /System/Library/CoreServes/powerd.bundle/com.apple.SystemPowerProfileDefaults.plist,” <a href="http://www.bingner.com/batteryfix.html" target="_blank">Binger writes</a>. “I looked for any possible impact of this. While this sounds good… we’re changing the power settings right? The reality is that it does absolutely nothing.” The report notes that the tweak isn’t malicious -- unless you consider being duped out of a $5 bill for absolutely nothing malicious, that is.</p><h3>AJA’s Io XT with Thunderbolt Now Available</h3><p>It’s been nearly a year since Apple introduced Thunderbolt I/O ports to the Mac, and the promised flood of new peripherals to attach to them has been slow to arrive on the market. This week, <a href="http://www.aja.com/news/index_article.php?id=165" target="_blank">AJA has announced the availability of one such product</a>, the company’s new Io XT. This $1495 pro video box hooks into a Thunderbolt-equipped Mac and allows complete video/audio capture and playback, supporting all of the latest codecs including Apple’s ProRes, CineForm, DVCProHD, Avid DNxHD and more. The peripheral is noteworthy as the first such solution to include dual Thunderbolt ports, which allows one for connection to the computer while the second can be used to daisy chain additional devices, including high-speed storage or even another display. AJA Io XT is now available from the company’s global network of resellers.<br /><br /><em>Follow this article’s author, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/JRBTempe" target="_blank">J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter</a></em></p><p>&nbsp;</p>http://www.maclife.com/article/news/thursday_recap_nokia_down_att_aja_ships_pro_video_thunderbolt_interface#commentsNewsAjaAT&TCydiadaily recapios 5 batteryiPhone 4Snokiaquarterly resultsscamsthunderboltTim CooktweaksiPhoneMacThu, 26 Jan 2012 22:49:44 +0000J.R. Bookwalter13176 at http://www.maclife.comHow to Maximize Your Battery Life in iOS 5http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_maximize_your_battery_life_ios_5
<!--paging_filter--><h3>With every new iteration of iOS comes a wealth of new ways to save battery life.</h3><p>Since iOS 5 was released, iPhone and iPad users across the globe have been suffering through some pretty bad battery hiccups--bad enough, in fact, for Apple to directly address it with the 5.0.1 update. Unfortunately, the update didn’t totally fix our battery bothers. While there’s definitely no fix like an official software fix, we figured this was as good a time as ever to revisit some of the tips and tricks that will take your battery from bad to better.</p><h3>What You’ll Need:</h3><p>&gt;&gt; An iPhone or iPad<br />&gt;&gt; iOS 5<br /><strong><br />Difficulty: Easy</strong></p><h3>1. Turn Off Location Services</h3><p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/files/u307916/2012/02/howtos/location-services.jpg" width="320" height="480" /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Does the Dictionary app really need to know where you are? How will that affect the definitions?</strong></p><p>Perhaps the biggest battery killer since the release of iOS 5 has been Location Services, which has caused some applications to send information like GPS signals back and forth. There’s a league of official Apple apps that do this, ranging from the Camera to the Compass; every time you open them, they chip away at your charge.</p><p><br />To turn them off, simply go to Settings &gt; Location Services and slide the top switch to OFF. This will disable all location services; if you want to hand pick which apps have access to your location, you’ll need to filter through the list below. It’s not a bad idea, and you might be surprised to learn which apps and system services are wasting battery power by constantly tracking your location (we’re looking at you, Compass Calibration and Setting Time Zone).</p><h3>2. Fetch Battery, Not Data</h3><p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/files/u307916/2012/02/howtos/fetch.jpg" width="320" height="480" /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Setting Fetch to Manually is your best bet—if you don’t mind having to open the Mail app to see new messages.</strong></p><p>You might not know it by looking at it, but Mail is a huge battery hog, constantly fetching new data when it’s closed. It’s a luxury afforded to only a few apps, and Mail would be almost worthless without it--but if you’re having problems with excessive battery drain, trimming back Mail’s fetch intervals can seriously help. To set new intervals, go to Settings &gt; Mail, Contacts, Calendars &gt; Fetch New Data. In this panel, you can turn off Push, and adjust the Fetch schedule for your phone from 15 minutes to Manually.</p><h3>3. Turn Off Wi-Fi and 3G</h3><p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/files/u307916/2012/02/howtos/wifi.jpg" width="320" height="480" /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Turning off Cellular Data will save some battery here and there, but it will also make your iPhone, well, just a regular phone.</strong></p><p>Turning off Wi-Fi and 3G can save a lot of battery life, even if you aren’t actively using them. To turn off Wi-Fi, head to Settings &gt; Wi-Fi and slide the Wi-Fi switch to OFF. You can also turn off Ask to Join Networks to save a bit of battery, but it won’t be as substantial. 3G is slightly trickier. In the good ol’ days you could simply turn off 3G, but now you have to turn off all Cellular Data. Not a bad plan if you’re not using it, though. To do so, just tap Settings &gt; General &gt; Network and slide Cellular Data to OFF.<br />&nbsp;<br />But what if you don’t want to use the internet at all? If you desperately need more charge life than you do functionality, you can also switch your phone to Airplane Mode. You won’t be able to use your phone as a phone, but you’ll save a huge amount of battery life for when you’re ready to start making calls or searching the internet.</p><h3>4. Turn Notifications Off</h3><p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/files/u307916/2012/02/howtos/notifications.jpg" width="320" height="480" /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Push notifications don’t seem like they’d make much of a difference, but they’re one of the few things that can wake your phone from a peaceful slumber.</strong></p><p>Head to Settings &gt; Notifications and sort through your apps, turning off Notifications on any apps that you don’t think require it. If you’re a big texter, Messages is definitely an app you should take a look at. By default, Messages displays a preview and an alert. Turning both of these off won’t stop you from receiving new data, but it will stop your iPhone from showing them to you when they come in, which will in turn stop your phone from constantly waking up when someone texts you.</p><h3>5. Dim the Screen</h3><p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/files/u307916/2012/02/howtos/brightness-can-be-cropped-as-you-see-fit.jpg" width="320" height="480" /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>A little dimming can make a big difference in battery life.</strong></p><p>A nice bright screen is a great way to show off your high-resolution display, but it can also be a major power drain (especially if you’re using an iPad). To adjust the brightness, head to Settings &gt; Brightness &amp; Wallpaper. By default, your iOS device has Auto-Brightness enabled. By flipping that switch and moving the slider farther to the left, you can easily extend your battery life.</p><h2>6 More Tips</h2><p><strong>Monitor Usage:</strong> Check out your usage in General &gt; Usage. Sometimes it can feel like you’re flying through your battery life, when you’re really just using your device all the time. Carefully monitoring the Usage page will give you an idea which is the case.<br /><br /><strong>Keep it Warm:</strong> Keep your iPhone or iPad in temperatures that range from 32 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. If you live somewhere cold, be sure to bring it inside overnight (as opposed to leaving it in your car).<br /><br /><strong>Run the Battery Down:</strong> No, you didn’t read that wrong. Lithium-based batteries are meant to be run all the way down, at least once a month. Charge your device to 100%, then use it until it turns off to keep its battery operating at peak performance.<br />Hard Reset. Every once in a while, there’s just something a little off with your battery. When no other diagnoses seem to work, it might be time for a hard reset. Simultaneously hold the Home and Lock buttons until the phone begins to restart.&nbsp; <br /><br /><strong>Lock your Phone:</strong> Sure, it’s an obvious step, but it might make a world of difference. When you’re finished using your iPhone, lock it before putting it in your pocket.<br /><br /><strong>Update:</strong> If nothing seems to be helping very much, check to see if your iOS device has an update available. These almost always contain performance enhancements (including better battery performance).</p>http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_maximize_your_battery_life_ios_5#commentsbatteryBattery LifeiOS 5ios 5 batteryiPadiPhoneiPodHow-TosWed, 04 Jan 2012 15:22:19 +0000Nic Vargus13031 at http://www.maclife.comMonday Recap: Google Search, Spotify’s New Direction, Grand Central Rumorshttp://www.maclife.com/article/news/monday_recap_google_search_spotify%E2%80%99s_new_direction_grand_central_rumors
<!--paging_filter--><p><img src="/files/u220903/google_search_ipad_200px.png" alt="Google Search for iPad" width="200" height="150" class="graphic-right" />We’ve got three words for you today: Short work week! For our U.S. readers, Thanksgiving is this Thursday and many folks have an extra day off on Friday, which means you’ll have a longer weekend at play than you will working three days this week. (Our apologies to those of you who don’t get to enjoy that scenario. We feel your pain.) But there’s still plenty of news floating around the interwebs, and we’ve collected some of the best stuff for you to read on this fine Monday, November 21, 2011.</p><h3>Report: Grand Central Apple Store Could Open This Week</h3><p>Retailers are amped up for Black Friday this week here in the U.S., and <a href="http://9to5mac.com/2011/11/20/grand-central-apple-store-the-biggest-in-the-world-scheduled-to-be-announced-this-tueday/" target="_blank">9to5Mac is reporting</a> that Apple may also get in the holiday spirit by opening its biggest store to date in New York City’s Grand Central Station. According to their sources and some on-site spy photos, Apple could officially announce the opening of the store on Tuesday and pull back the curtains in time for Black Friday shopping on November 25. The site is expected to have just over 300 employees (!!), who are currently being trained at New York area Apple Stores. Grand Central Station receives a whopping 750,000 visitors every single day and more than a million during the holidays, so it’s safe to say that this Apple Store could be the mother of them all.</p><h3>Google Search iOS App Gets New iPad Look</h3><p><a href="http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-google-search-app-for-ipad.html" target="_blank">The Google Mobile Blog announced</a> an update to the iOS <a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=ApuPaiKIpxg&amp;offerid=146261&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Fgoogle-search%252Fid284815942%253Fmt%253D8%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30&quot; target=&quot;itunes_store&quot;&gt;Google Search" target="_blank">Google Search</a> app today, which specifically targets the iPad user interface for “a significant redesign.” The app is now more interactive, more visual and easier than ever before to find exactly what you’re looking for. Images can be viewed full-screen and the app includes a new visual search history as well as easy access to other Google apps. The 11.9MB update is available now for users running iOS 4.0 or later -- which should really be most of us by now.</p><h3>Spotify Heading In “New Direction” with November 30 Press Event</h3><p>We love us some Spotify here at MacLife.com, which is why we’re excited to see what they’ll do next after finally landing on American shores over the summer. As it turns out, we won’t have long to wait: <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20111121/spotify-says-its-headed-in-a-new-direction/?mod=socialflow" target="_blank">AllThingsD is reporting</a> that the company has sent out a “mysterioso invitation” for a press event in New York on November 30 with CEO Daniel Elk and “a special guest or two.” So what’s the topic? No one knows for sure, but Spotify is teasing “a new direction for the company,” which sounds like a bit more than adding an MP3 store (which is already available in Europe) or a much-needed iPad app. Mark your calendars, and check back with us next Wednesday for all the details.</p><h3>Don’t Expect iOS 5.0.2 This Week -- Assuming You Were In the First Place</h3><p>Despite no official word from Apple that a new iOS 5 fix would be released this week, German-language site Macerkopf.de is backpedaling on an earlier report claiming that would be the case. <a href="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/11/21/apple_allegedly_delays_ios_5_0_2_to_address_memory_leaks.html" target="_blank">According to AppleInsider</a>, the website originally reported last week that iOS 5.0.2 would arrive “no later” than this week in an effort to address additional battery life issues for iPhone 4S users. The update supposedly brings 10 hours of active use for the new handset, while Apple is rumored to also be hard at work on iOS 5.1, which promises “many changes” to Siri’s voice control -- but don’t expect that one until sometime next year, sources claim.</p><h3>Stamped Gets The App Store Seal of Approval</h3><p>Still looking for the perfect social sharing app? <a href="http://blog.stamped.com/post/13113590198/introducing-stamped" target="_blank">The folks at Stamped, Inc. have released</a> a free iPhone app that may be just the ticket. Aptly named <a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=ApuPaiKIpxg&amp;offerid=146261&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Fstamped%252Fid467924760%253Fmt%253D8%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30&quot; target=&quot;itunes_store&quot;&gt;Stamped" target="_blank">Stamped</a>, the app claims to be “a new way to recommend only what you like best -- restaurants, books, movies, music and more.” To get started, create a profile and customize a unique “stamp,” then use it on things you want friends to know about. Promising “no noise, no strangers, just the things you and your friends love,” Stamped integrates with Opentable, Amazon, Fandango and iTunes and shares easily via Twitter and Facebook. The 8.5MB is free and available on the App Store now for all devices running iOS 4.0 or later (but is not a universal build for the iPad).<br /><br /><em>Follow this article’s author, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/JRBTempe" target="_blank">J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter</a></em></p><p>&nbsp;</p>http://www.maclife.com/article/news/monday_recap_google_search_spotify%E2%80%99s_new_direction_grand_central_rumors#commentsNewsApp StoreApple Retail StoresBlack Fridaydaily recapgoogle searchios 5 batteryiPhone 4SRumorsSpotifyiPadiPhoneMon, 21 Nov 2011 23:06:51 +0000J.R. Bookwalter12841 at http://www.maclife.comThe Week's 10 Hottest Apple News Stories, November 4http://www.maclife.com/article/gallery/weeks_10_hottest_apple_news_stories_november_4
<!--paging_filter-->http://www.maclife.com/article/gallery/weeks_10_hottest_apple_news_stories_november_4#commentsGalleryNewsandroidApple MailcordsEntourageGameStopGmailios 5 batteryios gamesnewbiesnoobsiPadiPhoneiPodMacHow-TosSat, 05 Nov 2011 18:50:35 +0000J Keirn-Swanson12768 at http://www.maclife.com